It didn’t matter if it was the baseball diamond, the basketball court, the football field or even the curling rink — Charles (Chuck) Dalton could dominate the game.

Dalton died Saturday at the age of 85, but the athletic exploits of the former Olympian ensure his legacy won’t soon be forgotten.

Born in Windsor in 1927, his family moved to London in 1933. Dalton started to showcase his athletic prowess early, when in high school he quarterbacked the South Collegiate Institute Lions.

After graduating from South, he studied business at the University of Western Ontario where he played a pivotal role on the school’s basketball team.

“In those days, we were the number 1 team in western Canada,” former teammate Harry Wade said.

Wade and Dalton, along with several other members of the Mustangs, played for the Tillsonburg Livingston’s after graduation. When the team won the national amateur championship in 1952, they became the nucleus of the Olympic team sent to Helsinki, Finland.

But more than being remembered as a stellar guard, Dalton’s also remembered as an excellent teammate.

“He was an outgoing, friendly guy, a good solid basketball player,” Wade said. “Chuck was a real good guy and a good teammate.”

Today, his name resides in the Western University sports hall of fame and the university’s basketball hall of fame.

But Dalton’s talents weren’t confined to the hardwood; he also spent several years playing for the London Majors baseball team at the same time.

“He worked hard, but he was very, very competitive,” said Chuck’s brother Larry. Chuck stayed involved in the baseball community after his playing days, coaching in the London area.

“He was good with people,” Larry said. “I was very proud of him; he was a very kind person.”

After his basketball and baseball days were behind him, he picked up the broom — becoming president of the London Curing Club.

Off the field and ice, he worked at Dalton Fuel, a family company, and then went into real estate.

But beyond all his athletic exploits, his wife of 59 years Marty will remember the man, not the athlete.

“He was a very caring, compassionate person. And I think a very good sign of that was he captivated people very quickly,” she said. “He was kind of magnetic.”

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